Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday announced providing Rs 25 crore under the NABARD’s rural infrastructure development fund to University of Agricultural Science (UAS), Raichur, Karnataka, for establishment of incubation centre for processing and value addition for promotion of millets.

“This fund will be used for creating facilities focused on research, setting up of laboratories and support to farmers by the UAS,” Sitharaman said at millet conclave 2022 at Raichur, Karnataka.

Sitharaman also announced that the Niti Aayog will soon announce a ‘millet challenge’ for the startups to design and develop innovative solutions for the value chains. She said that by December, three winners of the startups will be announced and will receive Rs 1 crore each.

Besides, 15 participants for the millet challenge will received Rs 20 lakh each and another 15 participants will receive Rs 10 lakh each besides the handholding support.

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Millet conclave 2022 is being organised as a curtain raiser prior to the International Year of Millet 2023. The millets farmer producers associations (FPOs), processors and startups are participating in the two-day conclave 2022 being organised jointly by Atal Innovation Mission, UAS and NABARD

To create domestic and global demand and to provide nutritional food to the people, in March 2021, India spearheaded the United Nations General Assembly resolution for declaring 2023 as the International Year of Millets. The proposal of India was supported by 72 countries.

According to the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfares report, the production of millets has increased by 16 % to 17.26 million tonne (MT) in the 2019-20 crop year (July-June) from 14.5 MT in 2015-16.

India is one of the leading producers of millets in the world with an estimated share of around 41% in the global production.

Millets are grown in around 21 states including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana.

Millets are notified as nutri-cereals by the government in April 2018. The millets are a rich source of protein, fiber, minerals, iron, and calcium and have a low glycemic index. There are 11 major varieties of millet considered as nutri-cereals, which are produced and exported from the country. These include sorghum (jowar), pearl millet (bajra), finger millet (ragi) and minor millets (kangani).